


The King of Birds

by DaisyNinjaGirl



Series: The Tenner [14]
Category: British Fairy Tales & Lore, Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:48:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24654103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaisyNinjaGirl/pseuds/DaisyNinjaGirl
Summary: Day Seven - Feather"Once, long ago, when all the birds spoke the same tongue, the oldest, but not necessarily wisest, birds called the birds together and announced that there must be a king, and all those assembled would need to choose who it would be."
Series: The Tenner [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1680610
Collections: The Tenner





	The King of Birds

_At dinner, one of the guests brought out a dusty box of Christmas crackers that had been found in one of the hidden crannies of the attic, and gave them to whoever would._

_Edward Farthing gravely pulled the cracker with the companion next to him, smiled at the bang, and carefully teased out the party favour - a delicately molded silver feather. “Count Nicolo today favoured us with a story of the most cunning of birds. I will tell you now of the cleverest.”_

**The King of Birds**

Once, long ago, when all the birds spoke the same tongue, the oldest, but not necessarily wisest, birds called the birds together and announced that there must be a king, and all those assembled would need to choose who it would be.

Of course, while birds of a feather may flock together, here assembled was every feather imaginable: spotted, hard, striped, soft, long… there was even a very aged Archaeopteryx there to observe the proceedings although, when asked, it shook its creaking head and insisted that while paleontologists might disagree on the matter, it did not consider itself to be a _true_ bird.

Oh, the arguing. Oh, the incessant noise, the squawking, the cawing, and the numerous pretexts presented to name a king: the largest, the smallest, the fastest, the hairiest… as many choices as birds were present. _Finally_ , they managed to come to at least _one_ point of agreement, that the bird that could fly highest should be the King of Birds.

Up they flew, up, up, up, the great eagle, the wise hoopoe, the hawks and falcons, the twittering sparrows, the red-breasted robins, the great-winged albatrosses. Some were left behind: the humble kiwi and the belly surfing penguin gazed up, up, up as the mass of their cousins flew ever higher until it was a small speck in the clouds. Then the birds began to tumble down, one by one, gasping for breath from the thin air, until only the greatest of birds: the eagle, the phoenix, the vulture, the crane - each strained wings and breath and sinew to reach the highest thinnest air. At last the eagle took a great beat of its wings and smiled smugly to see its competitors spread their wings and fall spinning to the ground. It let out a great cry of triumph and then felt a small thing leap from the feathers of its back. A tiny wren had hidden herself between the eagle’s tawny wings, and at the last, when all the eagle could do in the blackness so near to outer space was drift and hold its height, the wren fluttered her small wings and climbed even higher.

_Edward paused. “I suppose I might use this story as a metaphor for the hardy souls who first took humanity into space… It is of no matter.”_

The eagle fell and the wren fell, and they tumbled near to the ground where the little wren hastily hid herself in a briar hedge.

There was more arguing, there always is, but at the end of it all the birds agreed that, really, their King did not need to be the strongest of birds - so long as it was the cleverest.

_Edward smoothed out the folded paper crown he had found in his cracker. He placed it on his head with great solemnity and said with a twinkle: “As the Monarch for tomorrow, I do not pretend to be the cleverest. But let our theme be **Majesty**.”_


End file.
